Effects of CO2-induced ocean acidification on the growth of the larval olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus

It widely thought that ocean acidification processes that caused by atmospheric CO₂ increase and accordingly lower seawater pH conditions might cause serious harm to marine food webs in certain ecosystems in the near future. Little is known about how marine fishes respond to reduced pH conditions. We investigated the effects of CO₂ conditions on the growth of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) larvae. Newly hatched larvae were reared at three different levels of pCO₂ (574, 988 and 1297 µatm) in temperature-controlled (21 ± 0.5°C) water tanks for four weeks until metamorphosis. The experiment was repeated three times in May, June, and July 2011, and body lengths and weights were measured at the completion of each experiment. The results indicated that the body length and weight of flounder larvae significantly increased with increasing CO₂ concentrations (P < 0.05). A higher daily growth rate during the early larval stage (hatching to 14 days) was found among the larvae reared in low pCO₂ conditions, while a significantly lower growth rate was found among larvae in higher pCO₂ water conditions. On the other hand, in the late larval stage (18 days after hatching to metamorphosis), the daily growth rate of larvae was much higher in high CO₂ water. Bone density of larvae, however, decreased with increasing CO₂ concentration in the water